How to maximize readership of your blog content

This is the third post in a series of three.
Why Your Blog Strategy is So Important
Creating a Sustainable Blog Strategy for Your Integrative Center

Once your new blog strategy is up and running, you are on your way to creating interesting, relevant content around your center’s (brand’s) integrative medicine mission.  Creating great content is an important start, but now you’re ready for your content to be read more widely.

Essential Reading

Brody Dorland wrote an excellent post for the Content Marketing Institute called 12 Things to Do After You’ve Written a New Blog Post.  The advice Dorland shares largely works across business sectors and certainly applies to integrative medicine centers of all types and sizes.  I’m always saying that content is king, but, to get your work out there, distribution is still really important.    As you will read in Dorland’s post, there are many effective ways to go about this.  Follow the majority of his suggestions and you’ll be well on your way to maximizing your blog readership.

RSS Feeds

There is one thing that Dorland and I don’t agree on: the use of RSS feeds to populate one’s various social media accounts.  Having your social media accounts automatically populate does not allow for message control, which is essential to successful engagement and storytelling.

If you have, say, less than a half-dozen accounts including Facebook, Twitter and Google+, it’s more effective to manually craft different messages based on the specific social platform,  audience and space limitation.   If your blog team is managing to create say, 3-5 posts per week, it will not take long to manually post these to a half-dozen social media accounts.  Be careful to leave at least a dozen character spaces on your tweets to allow others to retweet your messages.

Blog Content is Not Channel Dependent

You’re creating blog content, but it doesn’t have to just stay there.  Your blog initiative is your core content hub. It doesn’t need to stay digital. Not all existing or prospective customers get their media from RSS feeds, social media or e-newsletters.  Believe it or not, some folks across the age spectrum still prefer print—or they read a combination of digital and print.  The point is you need to reach your customers where ever they actually consume their media, not simply where you would like them to be.  A good deal of your blog content is perfect for populating your e-newsletter. And, it can easily be re-purposed for your additional communication efforts.

Extending the Reach

It’s neither hard nor expensive to have a decent designer come up with a print newsletter template informed by your brand identity (logo, fonts, color palette, etc.). You can essentially reuse the same template for years.  Consider delivering your newsletter to your patient database and distributing bulk quantities to strategically-targeted places where they’re most likely to be read, including your own reception area.

Reaping the Rewards

Growing influence and reach by cultivating a dedicated readership takes time. But done correctly, and consistently (imperative!), your blog program will pay long-term dividends: building trust around your brand (center) and increasing patient volume through education—the delivery of informative, quality content.

About FON

FON is a leading integrative health and medicine business development and strategy consulting firm. FON specializes in custom solutions for growing patient volume, developing programs, and increasing product sales. Our practical business models are driven by innovative marketing, clear messaging, and customer engagement via branded storytelling.

Contact us today to schedule a complimentary 30-minute consultation to discuss your business development or personal brand needs.